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November 1998
As we prepare for this holiday season and
think of all of our blessings, we think of you, our tree owners. Thank you for all of your
wonderful support, thank you for helping to make all of this possible.
Sherry and I extend our very best wishes to
all of you and your families for a joyous and blessed holiday season.
Not long after we began Tropical American
Tree Farms, Sherry and I were invited to speak at the 1992 World Congress on the Family,
being held that year in Columbus, Ohio. They had chosen Doña Gloria Bejarano Calderon,
then the First Lady of Costa Rica, to receive their Pathfinder Award for her outstanding
work on behalf of children and families. Sherry and I were given the honor of making the
presentation speech.
As part of their invitation to speak, they
asked that we submit a statement of our principles and objectives in founding Tropical
American Tree Farms, to be included in the permanent record of the ceremony to be given to
Doña Gloria.
Six years later, we are still motivated by
the very same vision and guided by the very same values, and will be for the rest of our
lives:
We believe that every business to be truly
successful must be based upon a set of guiding principles and committed to certain clear
objectives.
Sherry and Steve in part of the
protected rainforests on the farms
Tropical American Tree Farms is founded in
the following beliefs:
- Profit can easily coexist with conscience and good values.
- Profit alone is very rewarding, but profit coupled with benefit to
others is immeasurably more rewarding.
- Specialized knowledge improves success.
- Profit is more self-perpetuating than altruism alone.
- A successful business relationship benefits everyone involved.
- God gives all of us the ability, and the responsibility, to leave
this world and those around us better than when we arrived.
- Out of every problem arises equal or greater opportunity.
- Working together, we can accomplish much more than working alone.
The destruction of the world's tropical
rainforests is a major problem which will impact us all. It also makes tropical hardwood
tree farming a uniquely profitable opportunity. And by producing tropical hardwoods that
don't have to be taken from the world's rainforests, tropical hardwood tree farming is
beneficial for the world.
In pursuing our free enterprise solution to
the problem of tropical deforestation, we are committed to the following objectives:
- Excellence. From the
selection of our tree farms, to the selection of our species, seeds and seedlings, to our
preparation, planting and care techniques, we will pursue excellence in everything we do.
We will seek to grow the highest quality trees and sustainably produce the finest quality
tropical hardwoods, for profit.
- Conservation. We
will work to help protect the world's remaining tropical rainforests. We will protect all
of the existing rainforest on the farms. We will plant as many tropical trees, sustainably
produce as much tropical hardwood, and personally protect as much tropical rainforest as
is consistent with maintaining profitability and quality. As part of our effort, we will
maintain our tree farms as private biological reserves. And in addition to the trees we
plant for harvest, we will also plant trees that will never be harvested, to protect steep
hillsides and the rivers and streams, and provide additional food and shelter for the
birds and animals.
- Education. We will
work to help slow tropical deforestation through education. On a global level, we will
continue to communicate the importance of protecting the world's remaining rainforests,
and that profit and the environment can coexist in harmony. We will continue to
communicate to the citizens and businesses of consuming nations the importance of
purchasing only those tropical woods that come from sustainable sources and not from the
destruction of rainforests. At the local level, we will continue to work to teach the
children and their families the importance of protecting the local flora and fauna and to
love, respect and value the forest and its trees.
- Sharing. We will share
this opportunity as widely as possible while continuing to maintain quality and
profitability. By planting and growing tropical hardwood trees by contract for our tree
owners, many more people may profit from this opportunity and enjoy the beauty of the
farms. And, together we can plant many more trees, produce much more tropical hardwood,
and protect much more rainforest than if we limited our efforts to our own resources.
- Community. In addition
to focusing on profit for our tree owners and ourselves, we will always strive to be a
benefit to all with whom we come into contact, especially our tree owners and our workers,
and to help all of our neighboring communities, their schools and their churches.
- Continuity. We are
committed to having our business continue, independent of our existence. We are organized
as a corporation for profit, and share our knowledge, beliefs, values, authority and
responsibility with our employees with the objective that they may continue on without us.
By pursuing our beliefs and adhering to our
commitments, by continuing to convey to others the importance of conserving the world's
remaining rainforests and the benefits of planting tropical trees for harvest for profit,
by continuing to share our unique opportunity with others and continuing to plant more
trees and protect more rainforest, together we can all make a difference in the world.
Sherry and I thank God every day for all of
you wonderful tree owners and all of our dedicated workers who together make all of this
possible.
Earlier this year we wrote about the
beautiful forest to the east of San Cristobal that is in danger because our neighbor who
owns the forest wants to harvest it. Thank you to all of you who responded to our letter.
Because of your help, we are now in a position to be able to buy and protect that forest.
The only remaining obstacle is that our
neighbor is now holding out for more money. He hasn't yet cut any trees, I suspect because
he knows that cutting trees would destroy the value of the forest for us.
Negotiating with him is quite challenging,
but Sherry and I know that everything truly worthwhile often requires much time, effort
and patience.
Thank you again for making it possible for
us to negotiate with him. We will keep you updated about our progress.
In our last two newsletters, we have been
excited to tell you that the teak is growing very much ahead of our original projections.
It's growth is really amazing, and we're very excited because our objective obviously is
to produce as much quality lumber as possible from each stand of trees.
To further promote the quantity and quality
of lumber from your trees, we had asked Leonardo, our forester, to study the growth
patterns to determine if we should thin the teak earlier than we had originally planned,
even though the trees removed early would likely have little or no value because their
heartwood wouldn't yet be well developed.
After studying the growth patterns,
including the growth patterns of two test plots of our own teak in which we did a very
early and aggressive 50% test thin, Leonardo's recommendation is that we definitely should
do an early, non-commercial thin of the 1992 teak.
He suggested that we do it now, and not
wait another year because we want the better trees to maintain their wonderful growth
momentum, and to maintain that momentum they will need the light, nutrients and water that
the smaller, less desirable trees are consuming.
His conclusion is that by removing all of
the smaller and less desirable trees now, earlier than originally planned, your remaining
larger, stronger trees will greatly benefit from the additional light, water and nutrients
and will grow even more vigorously, put on more diameter growth, and produce more quality
teak lumber for you than would be produced from all of the trees if we didn't do the thin.
He even concluded that the more aggressive
a thin we do now, up to possibly the 50% thin that we did on our own trees, the more your
best trees will benefit and the more teak lumber your trees will produce.
He has also recommended that we update our
projections to include the greater growth we are experiencing, and the likely greater
lumber production from each stand of trees. He has even suggested that the greater growth
will likely result in a final harvest several years earlier than we show in our
projections. But Sherry and I are very conservative and don't want to create expectations,
so for now, we will leave the projections as they are.
We have asked Leonardo to proceed to mark
all of the trees in the 1992 teak that he thinks should be thinned. Sherry and I will
personally review his recommendations in the field and then report to each of you who own
1992 teak his specific recommendations for your trees.
Although we have wanted you to not
anticipate receiving any proceeds from this early thin because our real objective is to
enhance the wonderful growth we are experiencing, and because the trees that will be
thinned now will be the smallest and least desirable and their heartwood is not yet well
developed, still at the same time we are researching to find possible uses and markets for
this early thin.
We continue to prefer that you not count on
receiving an early check. But if there is any way we can surprise you, we will.
We now have our Tropical American Tree
Farms website up and running, at http://tropicaltrees.com. We have tried to make it as
complete and useful as possible for you who already own trees, and as interesting and
informative as possible for anyone thinking about joining us.
We invite you to visit our website. You
will find information about what we are doing and why we are doing it. You can go to
descriptions of your species of tropical hardwood trees and color photos of your beautiful
hardwoods.
You will find information about Costa Rica,
and maps showing the location of our farms. If you are thinking about coming to visit your
trees, you can go to and print all of our travel information, including car rental and
hotel information, driving directions to each of the farms, and suggestions about what to
pack.
A tree owner enjoying one of the
many beautiful spots on the farms
You will find this issue of Tree Owners
News, and all of our prior issues. We have also included all of the newspaper and magazine
articles that have been published about Tropical American Tree Farms.
You will find photos of the farms and the
trees, and of many tree owners as they have visited their trees and enjoyed the wonderful
beauty of the farms.
Please visit our website. It is yours to
enjoy.
And please also invite your friends who may
be thinking about owning trees to also please visit us at http://tropicaltrees.com.
Although Sherry and I do most of our office
work here in our offices on Campo Real, most of the behind-the-scenes administrative work
is now being done in our office in San Isidro.
Yorleny and Carmen in our San Isidro office
With a population of about 50,000 and all
of the facilities of an active agricultural commerce center, San Isidro is the largest
town near our tree farms.
Carmen Quesada is our manager of the San
Isidro office and Yorleny Hernández is her assistant.
As a young girl, Carmen lived for a time in
the United States and is completely bilingual. Before joining Tropical American Tree
Farms, she has worked many years in business administration. Carmen is a wonderful
addition to our management team.
Yorleny has recently completed business
training and works in data entry for us. We are delighted that she too is part of our
team. Both Carmen and Yorleny are a joy to work with.
If you ever have any difficulty reaching us
at our office numbers, the ones at the bottom of the front page, please try calling or
faxing our San Isidro office. They will get the message to us. The San Isidro office
numbers are phone 011-506-771-8282, and fax 011-506-771-8383.
In 1996, Sherry and I had Tropical American
Tree Farms displays at a number of woodworking shows around the country. It gave us an
opportunity to be directly in touch with a large number of people who use the beautiful
woods we are growing.
Now that we are more settled after our move
down here, we have decided to do a few more woodworking shows. In August, we had a booth
at the International Woodworking Fair in Atlanta and met a number of wonderful
professional woodworkers and furniture makers. There were more than 53,000 attendees from
more than 80 countries.
In November and December, we will be having
a Tropical American Tree Farms display booth at four upcoming Woodworking Shows in San
Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Denver.
We exhibited at these same four shows two
years ago and Sherry and I are excited to again see the friends we made there, and have
the opportunity to be in contact with so many woodworking enthusiasts and professionals.
If you are able to attend any of these
shows, please stop by our booth. We would love to see you. We will be happy to answer any
questions you may have and show you samples of many of the species of beautiful tropical
hardwoods we are growing. The show locations and schedules are:
- San Mateo Expo Center - Fiesta Hall
- 2495 S. Delaware Street, in San Mateo
- November 6, 7, 8
- Booth 141
- Seattle Center - Exhibition Hall
- Mercer Street at 3rd Avenue North, in Seattle
- November 13, 14, 15
- Booth 328
- Fairplex - Building 4
- White & McKinley Avenues, in Pomona
- November 20, 21, & 22
- Booth 428
- Denver Merchandise Mart - Mart Pavilion
- 451 E. 58th Avenue, in Denver
- December 4, 5, & 6
- Booth 331
The show hours will be the same for all of the shows:
- Friday 12 noon to 7:00 PM
- Saturday 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM
- Sunday 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Please stop by our Tropical American Tree
Farms booth and say hello. We'd love to see you!
As you think about gifts for the holidays,
please consider a timeless gift of precious tropical hardwood trees.
Children, grandchildren, nieces and
nephews, valued employees, customers or clients, your church or university - all would
genuinely benefit from your unique and very generous gift for the next 25 years.
If you would like to give a gift of
tropical trees for this holiday season, we can have your display tree certificates to you
in time for the holidays if we receive your order by December 5.
Several of you were kind enough to call or
e-mail to make sure we were OK after Mitch. We, and the farms, are all fine. The storm
actually stayed far from Costa Rica and our weather during that time was very normal for
the rainy season. Thank you very much for your thoughtfulness.
One of our many joys in our work here at
Tropical American Tree Farms is each year giving little trees to all of the school
children in the neighboring schools to take home and plant. This year we gave trees to
more than 550 students in ten different schools.
Steve talking with the students at the
Barú school on Campo Real
A group photo to give to the class
This has become an annual Tropical American
Tree Farms tradition in our effort to help the younger generation learn the value of
planting tropical hardwood trees and the importance of protecting the rainforest.
For those of you who have e-mail, if you
haven't yet had the time to let us know your e-mail address, please just drop us a quick
e-mail at trees@tatf.com and give us
your e-mail address so we can communicate more quickly than by the regular mail.
Sherry and I want to again thank all of you
for being such a truly important part of Tropical American Tree Farms. Thank you for your
wonderful, warm, enthusiastic support. Thank you for telling all your friends and
neighbors about planting tropical hardwood trees. Together, we really can make a
difference. Thank you!! |
